Police Minister Bheki addresses residents of eThembeni informal settlement in Khayelitsha while visiting Bulelani Qolani (centre), who was dragged out of his shack naked. Picture: Phando Jikelo/ANA Police Minister Bheki addresses residents of eThembeni informal settlement in Khayelitsha while visiting Bulelani Qolani (centre), who was dragged out of his shack naked. Picture: Phando Jikelo/ANA
Cape Town – The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has threatened the City of Cape Town with legal action over its evictions and given it until today to stop any future evictions during the lockdown.
This follows the humiliation of Bulelani Qolani, a father of four, by City law enforcement officers who were captured on video dragging him naked out of his one-room shack during an eviction at eThembeni informal settlement in Khayelitsha last week.
The incident drew nationwide outrage, with Police Minister Bheki Cele visiting the area at the weekend.
LRC spokesperson Thabo Ramphobole said the City, as an organ of state, had shown flagrant disregard for human rights and had continuously undermined efforts of national government to curb the spread of the virus.
“In light of the recent evictions in eThembeni, Cape Town, the LRC has been instructed by the Human Rights Commission, the Housing Assembly and Mr Bulelani Qolani to challenge the City of Cape Town's eviction policy, human rights violations and the unlawful conduct of the city's Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU).
"Qolani is the individual in the viral social media video who was dragged from his home in a violent and dehumanising manner, and had his home brought to the ground around him.
"We have thus sent a letter to the City requesting an undertaking to halt all evictions within Cape Town metropolitan area and should this undertaking not be forthcoming by Monday, July 6, 2020, we will approach the Western Cape High Court for urgent relief.
“The LRC condemns the manner in which the City unlawfully evicted Mr Qolani from his home, stripping him of his right to dignity and rendering him homeless.
"Since the country went into lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the City has escalated its anti-land invasion operations, in blatant disregard of the international and national moratorium on evictions, and persists in justifying its conduct by claiming that the structures it is demolishing are unoccupied. The video of Mr Qolani clearly portrays a different story,” Ramphobole said.
City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo confirmed that they had received the letter and were considering its contents.
Minister Cele condemned the actions by law enforcement, saying: “This is another level of brutality. One major problem about this law enforcement you just don't know when next to go when these things happen. It is a structure that does not necessarily fall under protocols of the law of the constitution. There must be some form of accountability.
"In February, I had a meeting with Safety and Security MEC JP Smith to deal with the structural issues of this Law Enforcement and there were things outstanding for them to show us that indeed we are dealing with legal and legitimate structure and those things up to this point are not forthcoming.”
Smith said: “This is of course absolute rubbish as metro police are subject to Independent Police Investigative Department and Law Enforcement, and accountable to many more oversight mechanisms than the SAPS.
"We have repeatedly asked to be included within the oversight of Ipid and it is only the failure of Minister Cele that has caused it not to be so by failing to amend the law we asked the national government to amend years ago.”